The night before the game against FC Nürnberg we had a little bit of a shock.It appears unnamed individuals from Hertha informed the umbrella organisation for the Ostkurve (Förderkreis-Ostkurve) that they were going to change the format of the pre-kickoff build up.Instead of finishing with everyone singing the traditional“Nur nach Hause” before the kick off they would blast out a track by Seeed over the PA system.It would appear that there was no consultation with the fan groups about this. The change was just passed on to members as one small paragraph in the new season e-mail the night before the first game and, over the phone to the Ultra groups.

On the day and well before the kick off, Frank Zander came in front of the Ostkurve and led the singing of the traditional Hertha song “Nur nach Hause”.This was all very fine and dandy with the fans enthusiastically singing along.All was as it should be.Then before kick off the PA system kicked in blasting out “Dickes B”by Seeed.Needless to say the fans carried on singing their anthem – “Nur nach Hause” and, in my opinion at least, it all sounded pretty awful.I hate the PA system at the best of times but when it’s trying to drown out our own fans?

Sure “Dickes B” is about Berlin but you can’t just dump that on a few tens of thousand football fans without any notice (let alone consultation) and expect them to like it.That, was never going to happen.I can’t say “Nur nach Hause” is exactly my all time favourite as a song but hey, like it or not, it is the Hertha anthem and, to be fair it is pretty easy to sing along to.If they wanted to play the Speed track fine, just finish off with the traditional anthem.

On the face of it this appears a strange way to run a club.It felt like the powers that be feel the need to do something really stupid to really annoy the fans every year. When the club is trying all sorts of things to fill seats in the Olympiastadion antagonising it’s existing fanbase in this way only serves to shoot themselves in the foot with a giant blunderbuss.So far we have only heard one side of the story of course but the heavy handed way in which it appeared to have been done has only made it worse.

In the lead up to the new season SImonir is “home alone” whilst Jan jets off and suns himself in the Costas – lucky Jan.None of the normal banter on this occasion other than when Simónir starts talking to himself!In this episode we kick off introducing the listener to the new 2018/19 Bundesliga season and opening cup game. Simónir rambles on about a few things including:

In the last Matchday episode of this season, we have to talk about the last two games. Grief counseling would be more appropriate. But we do see some positive aspects to the whole ordeal, a very blue-white fan march and other observations concerning our beloved Alte Dame.

If you do listen to our podcast repeatedly, why don’t you head over to iTunes and leave a rating and some nice words? You can follow us on @dmtfpodcast on Twitter, Instagram and sometimes facebook. Simon is on Twitter as @econet and Jan is @janmuerei.

We will be back in the offseason, make sure you get all our episodes by subscribing with your favourite podcatcher.

Have a great summer, y’all!

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Well Hertha fans, now have just two games to play in the 2017/18 season.One away game against Hannover ’96 and then the fizzy drinks company in Berlin on the last day. Before these last two games, Hertha came up with some thrills, then spills and finally a creditable fightback to give us something to discuss in this episode.

The penultimate home game of the season saw Berlin bathed in glorious sunshine Hertha fans were basking in long awaited heat.

This time, to celebrate reaching double figures we have two guests from Canada to be with us.There are Patrick (of europatrick.com travel blog fame) and then, the mysterious Cynthia.

Chapters:

00:00:00 Intro and Introductions

00:02:06 SGEBSC

00:20:13 BSCFCA

00:50:32 Rambling and stuff about Patrick

01:06:36 MVP so far?

01:18:26 Torunarigha’s Instagram

01:26:00 Transfer rumours [Dilrosun – signed on Thursday 3/5/2018]

01:35:07 Random, just random

01:44:57 Wrapping it up

01:46:38 Outro

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This weeks home game had our committed and professional reporters living in hope as they arrived at the stadium on a day that was not quite as pleasant as the weather forecasters and indeed Hertha had us believe.Following this advice about not needing long sleeves Simonir turned up in his shirt and shorts as drizzle started to fall on fans standing outside at a bar before the game.We were hoping Pal Dardai’s plan for the game ran more smoothly than his clothing choices for the day!

After a little pyro display from the listing Köln fans the game started well enough with an attacking formation of 4.4.2 with both Ibisevic and Selke up front.

It appeared Pal was not going to mess about this time and he was going to for it it.

In this episode our intrepid reporters will be discussing:

Introductions and games to be covered – away in Monchengladbach at home against Köln

1 minute – Disappointment in Monchengladbach but positives to be taken in terms of attacking play

10.5 minutes – Match day 30 at home against FC 1. Köln, disappointing weather and meeting visitors from both Köln and Manchester.

14.5 minutes – The first half against Köln and defensive errors.

23 minutes – The second half with the defensive mistake being subbed off.Selke breaks his 716 minute goal drought and scores a second for Hertha’s 1000th home goal.Hertha’s first home win in 2018 and in 122 days.

33.5 minutes – Looking forward to games in the future and the fan march “March of tradition” before the last game of the season against Leipzig.

35/38 minutes – Stark gets an early birthday present – a broken nose that was operated on the Monday after the game.

41 mins strikers, and injured players

43 minutes – where we are in the table and how it’s all going to end this season

50 minutes – podcasts after the end of the season and new players

52 minutes – Kevin Grosskreutz the multipurpose player

54.5 minutes – the 2. Bundesliga.

56 Simon’s blog and the new stadium for Hertha (mention a Dennis Jastrzembski signing a professional contract)

1 hour 4 minutes shout of to @GrahamRCurrie and the German love affair with Scotland

1 hour trying to think about an episode title, suggestions for the next episode and rambling about food (feeling hungry by this point)

1 hour 15 minutes – it’s a wrap

As usual I have added a inbuilt player to listen to this episode via this page if that helps you.

Here’s a snapshot of what you missed if you were not able to be in the Olympiastadion to see the 2:1 win against Köln.

In this week’s episode Jan and Simon celebrate Easter Monday after braving the elements of the weekend in Berlin.The skies over Berlin (Der Himmel über Berlin – a cracking film by the way) threw everything from glorious spring sunshine to miserable drizzle to freezing sleet.It was hard to tell what season we were in but hey, such is life.

The Saturday night had us trudging towards the Olympiastadion on a dark, wet March evening with quite a few supporters deciding it was all too much but hey I’m sure the listener appreciates our commitment.

As discussed in the podcast the already dark, wet rather miserable night was supplemented by a little pyro display put on by the visiting supporters.I guess they wanted to block out the superior support in the Ostkurve with the smoke. Here are a few photos as a picture paints a thousand words . . . or something . . .

Anyhoo . . . DMTF008 has us chatting about . . .

Hello’s

What’s episode 008 all about

Hamburger SV away and the end of the 448 minute goal drought with goals from Lazaro (voted Bundesliga “Rookie of the month” for March) and Kalou

The German National Team and the stadium support (or the lack of it)

At home in the highland mist against VfL Wolsfburg

Fan discontent with the management and Mr Keuter in particular.Objections to the digitalisation of the club a resources used in that area and e-Sports rather than “real sport”.

Hertha abstained in the DFL 50+1 vote although Fan Clubs sent support of retaining of retaining the Status Quo.

The perils of the Bundesliga trying to compete with the likes the English Premiere League and Hertha seeking investors.Also the amazing disappearing John-Anthony Brooks (who?)

More about Hertha’s game against Wolfsburg and looking forward to next season (is this season already over?). The return of Julian Schieber.

Jan misses the 11mm football film festival though ill heath.

Simon talks about looking at whales and Jan regrets not seeing puffins in Scotland.

It’s a wrap

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This episode of the Don’t Mention The Fussball Podcast looks back at the long distant memory of Hertha scoring a goal in the light of the last three games against: Bayern, Munich (Away), Schalke/Gelsenkirchen and SC Freiburg.

Over this period we endured in excess of 392 minutes of football without Hertha finding the net. So, here’s how it went . . .

Introduction

Jan’s visit to Munich – including a rant about stadium music

Away in Gelsenkirchen – including an unusual way of gaining pleasure from a football match

SC Freiburg in the Olympiastadium including visitors and interesting banners on Monday night protests.

A mini-interview with two visitors to the Olympiastadion

Listener questions – Jonny Klinsmann in the news

The BFG (Per Mertesacker) and the pressures of modern football

Next week – away in Hamburg and perhaps HSV descending

The prospect of a new shirt sponsor for next season

It’s a wrap

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Here we are back again with our fifth episode where we deal with the technical difficulties of remote pod casting as a result of Simónir being first in Spain and then in England. This posed considerable difficulties for a couple of guys who not only know very little about football but also, it appears, making podcasts which under the circumstances is unfortunate.

In this episode we talk about a number of topics including:

Why was Simónir not in Berlin?

Agenda

Away in Bremen – SVWBSC.

Transfers.

At home in the snow against Hoffenheim.

Predictions for the next three games (hopelessly inaccurate)

Goalkeepers

The 50+ rule comparisons with England (a question from Sorgenkind)

Its a wrap

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Here we are, back again after the winter break with Don’t Mention The Football Podcast Episode 004 – “Selke Through The Smoke”. Hear more from Jan and Simónir about Hertha BSC in English.

Amongst other things we talk about the first game of 2018 away in Stuttgart followed by the first home game this year against Borussia Dortmund. There were disappointments, paper Choreos and Pyros just for starters!